Today We Remember
September 11, 2006
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Today being September 11, five years after the horrific events of 9/11 is a day we should not Forget to Remember. Please take a moment and think about some of the lessons that were taught to us in the midsts of that emotional time.
Let’s prove George Bernard Shaw wrong. If you’ll remember he’s the one who said
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
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Tags: Misc, 9 11, General, George Bernard Shaw
The cynic in me agrees with him. Most of us have trouble learning from our own lives, much less the lives of others. Lessons learned have to be re-learned. But how do you know joy if you’ve never felt pain?
Rick, from a purely philosophical perspective I think I disagree with you on the whole joy/pain issue. Seeing pain as the necessary precursor for experiencing joy seems to completely cheapen what Joy is altogether. And I see it as a wholly inadequate explanation for why there is pain in this world.
In theory it would be entirely possible to fully understand Joy simply by comparing it to a general state of contentedness. Pain is not required.
Interestingly enough, pain does have value in and of itself. Pain is often a warning sign that gets us to alter course to avoid something worse. Pain is a trip wire that shocks us awake so we change our behavior prior to being completely destroyed.
I think that is one of the reasons that people so rarely learn the lessons of history. Because they don’t experience the pain first hand, the lesson doesn’t sink in.
For one potential example of someone applying that “personal historical pain” we can look to the way Dennis Miller changed his political views after 9/11. Apparently he felt a significant amount of pain that day (I assume living in New York) and it caused him to change course.